Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

Curiosity just dictated me to "look after" my two unidentifiable RCA TO3 trannystors. I decided to turn one of them into a convertible top to have a peek inside.

I thought hey wouldn't it be cool to have a microscope so I can look at the die in detail ... well I guess I don't need one for a big ass TO3 die... you can just look at it with naked eyes. Macro shot with the camera helps a bit too, but no need for a 'scope...

One of the two bonding points is broken, but maybe it was just the hacksaw blade hitting the pin, I don't know

That was my contribution for today 

[bd139]

Problem is, it does not matter how much I ask... I am not the one developing the S/W so I have to make do with what's out there, like everyone else.
I am happy that you are happy... I am not and wil never be by the way IT is going. t me computers have long stopped being interesting and fun... now they are just a necessary evil to me, that I try to live with, spend as little time as possible messing with as it's not enjoyable, and spend as little money on them as possible. My PC is 15 years old and if I could I would keep it another 15 or 30 years. Sadly it's starting to look less and less feasible due to S/W bloat and this race for silly high picture and movie resolutions / bandwidth.  The race for clock speed stagnated, so now they have invented a new race, for pixels, to keep the industry going 

I think you're the customer flagellating themselves with the doomsaying sign to be fair. A huge amount of progress has been made. It's worth swimming a bit upstream and enjoying it.

As for pixels, I really have to disagree there. The biggest improvements for me recently have been displays. I have invested in the two best computer displays available at the moment. They are, without hyperbole or exaggeration, fairly life changing. Another hobby is photography you see...

Yes I like photography too. Problem is the averag ejoe confuses resolution/ pixel count, and "quality".

Every tells me " My camera makes super good quality pics,; it's XXXXX  Megapixel, yours is only X Megapixel LOL ".

I keep trying to explain them than a 12MP shitty picture is just 12M times more shit than a shitty 1MP picture, but they don't understand.

Well I will always prefer a good VGA pic to a 10MP shitty picture that's super grainy and blurry and not focused and crap lighting and horrible colours what have you, ie 95% of the pictures people take and post on forums.

I might go into the photography rabbit hole one day... but not very deep, because shallow pockets. A friend 15 years ago sent me pictures taken with a Leica camera and it looked super sharp and crisp, vivid.
Want that. Am tempted by a Sigma camera (if they are still in business) with their unique "Phoveon" sensor or whatever it's called not sure. Then a decent objective for super macro shots of electronic boards/components, and wood grain once I get to dabble with fine wood working. Then a wide angle objective so I can take/show interior pics of my house, because it's small. Then an objective for long distances, so I can zoom on the wild ducks and coypus from my kitchen window, when they show up at the back of my garden.

My dad has a large LCD screen on his computer and I can live with it. Give me eye strain. Eyes have too much to move/travel to go from one corner to the other, I don't find it comfortable.
Right now I am using a 22" LCD I was given recently, that I fixed, to replace my old 17" CRT that was dying. I would not want much bigger than this 22".... instead I add as many "virtual  desktops" as I need, to spread the programs across multiple "desktops". Makes it easy to organize stiff and reduce clutter on a given desktop. First desktop is for music playing, second is the main one with Firefox and it's 3 windows and 60 tabs open at all times. third and last is kept clear and I switch to it when I want a clean desktop for temporary stuff. Look at a file I just downloaded, whatever, without having to disturb/minimize all the windows that are opened in the second/main desktop.

Yes pixel count is nothing to do with quality. At best it allows you to crop out any stupid mistakes you make. But it does help when it comes to actually editing and enjoying the photos you took. It's very difficult to tell how sharp something is with a low pixel density. I can print very large photos off my phone which is a 12MP camera, although that oversharpens things slightly resulting in me getting annoyed.

I found that the size isn't related to eyestrain even though it feels like it. There are some really large panels that don't cock up your eyes and some that do. Eventually I worked out this was down to contrast ratio, pixel density and how far you are away from the screen. Invest in the first two and move back from a larger screen helps massively and improves the whole visual acuity thing. I do use virtual desktops as well, usually having a utility desktop (todos/notes), a browser desktop and a lightroom desktop.

On that, a friend of mine just got a couple of decent 27" Dell Ultrasharp 4k IPS panels out of a skip the other day. They were chucked out because they were VESA mount and no one wants monitors without stands and the office they were in was closing down and no one is buying desktop stuff at the moment. There's a lot of free stuff out there which is top notch.

[factory]

Quick 427A check out. Mostly works once the crusty trimmers were exercised.

Battery option eviscerated. However the thing pops up at 63 volts across the regulator board on power up which is quite a bit higher than I was expecting. Not sure if that is normal based on the usual 22.5V battery required so will tread carefully here.

I am considering actually replacing the whole mains side with a USB hole, charger IC, Li-ion back and boost converter to 22.5V.

Edit: looking at the SM the main filter cap is rated 40V so that ain’t right 🤣

Did the battery option still function, or was it completely dead? Mine was still working when I last used it, might be interested in the battery if it is OK and you don't want it.

I think my Tek 422 had a similar open circuit voltage with no battery fitted and charge selected, didn't note the DVM reading though, it had an option of a 24V NiCd pack.

David

No the battery option was completely duff. In fact the negative terminal was completely oxidised and at least two of the cells in the pack had leaked. Fortunately it was shrink wrapped. It was dated 1978 so about what I expected. The end game is that the battery was dropped off at the tip earlier into the hazmat bin 

I'm wondering if I can emulate the original battery voltage limiting with a zener string or something equally primitive. I didn't get around to tracing it out but I'd have expected there to be some series resistance between the transformer output at the positive.

So before:



After: 



Lots of assumptions there about how it's wired up!

OK leaking, sounds like it's gone to the right place.

As for the charging, was there not a "fast/slow" charge switch on the back too, I guess "fast" is very little current limiting and probably no operation while charging.

David

[bd139]

Siglent box now lurking under my desk courtesy APC delivery ...

Must be an old model as the latest boxes almost won't fit under a desk. 
Oh well, despite you planning to move digs soon that recent cleanout (including test leads  ) has allowed you acquire a few goodies to keep yourself occupied and outta mischief which for all those in the motherland is a good thing. 

Yeah I sit and look at the good side of things here. I managed to start from near zero again. Most of the old test leads were years old and quite knackered. Components were excessive and unfocused and distracting. Getting rid of it intentionally or otherwise ( ) allowed accumulation of cash, space and time. That allowed me to focus on projects and requirements and work back to parts and gear.

Anyway no forward engineering projects are starting yet other than in LTspice. Once moved I will have space for a dedicated bench so I will resume then.

I am pissing myself with excitement at this prospect.

Simpler if the spend just does that whereas the cost of two of the goodies recently acquired made me do #2's ! 
We have just 12 months to uptake any demo model offers otherwise it's full trade price but either way if cashflow is tight it ain't happening. 
Sometimes it seems like we don't make a lot at this game other than acquire some real nice toys. 

Hey at least you've got not constipation problems now 

Fingers crossed for you ether way. Worst time to try and sell stuff at the moment as we're approaching a global recession apparently. You're right though; at least you get to play with some cool toys. Also why I couldn't do your job as I'd be too busy playing with the things rather than actually selling stuff 

[bd139]

OK leaking, sounds like it's gone to the right place.

As for the charging, was there not a "fast/slow" charge switch on the back too, I guess "fast" is very little current limiting and probably no operation while charging.

David

There is indeed a fast/slow switch on the back. I'm not sure of how it functions yet, what with their being no service info for this version, but what I can say is that the battery is connected in parallel to the output of the charging rather than being part of the charging circuit. So it will operate whichever position the switch is in or if disconnected. I'm hoping it's just as per the diagram I posted but a different series resistor was switched in to control charge current. The voltage was similar in both switch positions but that might be because the meter consumes 3mA and the series resistors are probably quite small for charge regulation so not much voltage drop at 3mA!

If that is the case, I'll cut up a piece of FR4 with 2-3 zeners on it to reach 22.5V and screw that to the top of the battery charger circuit.

[factory]

The problem I have with the larger screens (TV or computer) is motion sickness, can't play modern games on this 24" monitor for very long at all, same with watching the large TV at my brothers place, the deliberate shaky camera shit in some films & TV programmes doesn't help. 

David

The jerky camera stuff annoys me too. I mean can't anyone filming this crap afford a gimball 

No problems with motion sickness here, yet. I can still go a few rounds on Quake Live. The only problem I have had is visual fatigue on some monitors, particularly cheap IPS panels. Increasing pixel density, contrast ratio and refresh rate completely eliminated that, but it cost me a couple of kidneys in the process.

It something I've always suffered from, used to get the same as a passenger, in the back of car when I was younger, a holiday trip in a boat ended badly too. Insert preferred vom emoji here.
I recognise the problem these days before it gets too bad, I can't read a map, or use the phone as passenger for more than a few minutes.

David

[tggzzz]

Hmm... I won't even use one of those self scan tills if I can possibly avoid it, I object to being complicit in putting more money into some fat cats pocket at the expense of someone's job. Our local Asda and Sainsburys have now almost done away with manned tills FFS. They might have been low paid jobs but they did provide some support to some people.

I used to say that, but in all good conscience I can't really claim to any more. I used to queue for the tills on the basis it kept people in work. In the case of people like the Lovely Linda who works on the tills in our 'local'* Sainsburys and has a very mild form of Down's syndrome it might be the difference between a reasonable job and a shit job or even none. Sadly I've been seduced by the ease and calmness of using one of the store's portable scanners, packing my shopping calmly in the right place in the right bag as I go, and when I've finished walking around the store I simply pay and walk out.

I've had a battle with myself about it and resisted for a long time. On the one hand there's the Lindas, and on the other hand there's the Sharons and Darrens who throw my goods at me as they scan them, destroy any order in which I've put them on the conveyer belt mixing frozen food with biscuits, and hard tins with fragile crisps and generally make using a full service checkout something to avoid. So when out of curiosity I finally once tried the scanners you carry around the store with you I was converted. I realised that I could skip the last and most unpleasant 20 minutes of the supermarket experience and haven't looked back. I'm afraid that on this occasion minor selfishness, in the form of an abhorrence of Sharons and Darrens mucking up my carefully organised shopping, has won out over social responsibility.

* local meaning nearly three miles away

Back in January, I was in Waitrose doing what was obviously a party shop. The partner on the till & I were chatting, and she asked me whose birthday it was. I told them it was for my Father's 100th: she offered him the choice of a complimentary bottle of wine or chocolates as a birthday gift from Waitrose. Went for the chocolates as he doesn't drink any more.

Bollocks; I should have tried that for my mother's centenary. Might have got both, as she and a friend had been in the Waitrose magazine a few years earlier!

[tautech]

Siglent box now lurking under my desk courtesy APC delivery ...

Must be an old model as the latest boxes almost won't fit under a desk. 
Oh well, despite you planning to move digs soon that recent cleanout (including test leads  ) has allowed you acquire a few goodies to keep yourself occupied and outta mischief which for all those in the motherland is a good thing. 

Yeah I sit and look at the good side of things here. I managed to start from near zero again. Most of the old test leads were years old and quite knackered. Components were excessive and unfocused and distracting. Getting rid of it intentionally or otherwise ( ) allowed accumulation of cash, space and time. That allowed me to focus on projects and requirements and work back to parts and gear.

Anyway no forward engineering projects are starting yet other than in LTspice. Once moved I will have space for a dedicated bench so I will resume then.

I am pissing myself with excitement at this prospect.

Simpler if the spend just does that whereas the cost of two of the goodies recently acquired made me do #2's ! 
We have just 12 months to uptake any demo model offers otherwise it's full trade price but either way if cashflow is tight it ain't happening. 
Sometimes it seems like we don't make a lot at this game other than acquire some real nice toys. 

Hey at least you've got not constipation problems now 

Fingers crossed for you ether way. Worst time to try and sell stuff at the moment as we're approaching a global recession apparently. You're right though; at least you get to play with some cool toys. Also why I couldn't do your job as I'd be too busy playing with the things rather than actually selling stuff 

Yes sales/growth has slowed a little and the immediate future is a little unclear although temporarily next weeks Auckland EMEX could be good for us as we get some proper one on one exposure rather than doing it all remotely via websites and emails. Planning to have ~10 units on the stand and all will be going with some harvesting the WiFi bands to add life to their displays which should draw a few punters in. 
Another couple of scopes doing decodes and maybe one with a 24" remote display should liven the place up pretty good.....will post some pics once we have it all configured and running.
Buddy hendorog is helping us run the stand and he currently has our new 4 port SNA to get up to speed with it beforehand.

[vk6zgo]

Curiosity just dictated me to "look after" my two unidentifiable RCA TO3 trannystors. I decided to turn one of them into a convertible top to have a peek inside.

I thought hey wouldn't it be cool to have a microscope so I can look at the die in detail ... well I guess I don't need one for a big ass TO3 die... you can just look at it with naked eyes. Macro shot with the camera helps a bit too, but no need for a 'scope...

One of the two bonding points is broken, but maybe it was just the hacksaw blade hitting the pin, I don't know

That was my contribution for today 

That reminds me of an old mate of mine, years back.

Bob needed a Silicon phototransistor, & like many of us at work at the time, had a lot of "cleanskin" NPN & PNP transistors that a local shop was selling for a few cents each out of "lolly jars".
We would all go home with our little bags of what I called "BC10?" transistors.

Bob neatly sliced the top off one of these, glued in a clear plastic window, & had his phototransistor.
It worked well, too!

[TERRA Operative]

I like Windows 10*. There I said it! 

It's stable, fast, and the only bluesceens I've had are from faulty hardware or when I poked at something I shouldn't have. Stuff just works, printers just work, no messing around. Network printer, Wi-Fi, USB, whatever. I have yet to have a connection problem under Win10.
Same for setting network drives etc. In XP it was an ordeal. Win10 it's like 10 clicks of the mouse.

The only thing I don't like is the lack of direct hardware access to stuff like parallel and serial ports, but that's been the case since at least XP, so it's not specifically a Win10 thing as such.




* Once it has been debloated with W10Privacy and Winaero Tweaker

[mnementh]

My computers all work fine and do exactly what I want 

That's because you have sex with them on a regular basis; keep them content and well-fed. Most of us meatsacks haven't figured that one out yet... 

Not at all. I threaten them regularly. They are afraid. That’s how you treat computers. 

Edit: and there are printers. You need to make sure they are very afraid.

(Skip ahead to ~1:00 for the Crowley bits) 

"Grow BETTER!!!"

mnem
*grins wickedly*   "I have an oscilloscope... and the probes are very cold..."   

[Neomys Sapiens]

Curiosity just dictated me to "look after" my two unidentifiable RCA TO3 trannystors. I decided to turn one of them into a convertible top to have a peek inside.

I thought hey wouldn't it be cool to have a microscope so I can look at the die in detail ... well I guess I don't need one for a big ass TO3 die... you can just look at it with naked eyes. Macro shot with the camera helps a bit too, but no need for a 'scope...

One of the two bonding points is broken, but maybe it was just the hacksaw blade hitting the pin, I don't know

That was my contribution for today 

That reminds me of an old mate of mine, years back.

Bob needed a Silicon phototransistor, & like many of us at work at the time, had a lot of "cleanskin" NPN & PNP transistors that a local shop was selling for a few cents each out of "lolly jars".
We would all go home with our little bags of what I called "BC10?" transistors.

Bob neatly sliced the top off one of these, glued in a clear plastic window, & had his phototransistor.
It worked well, too!

Not for long, I presume. Semiconductors, specifically those in hermetic housings, are normally encapsulated in an inert gas mixture.

[Neomys Sapiens]

On a thoroughly unpleasant note I have to tell that I fell victim to a filthy piece of vermin again. Although the financial damage is rather limited, I really could have used that thing. On regular Ebay, I won an auction for a Dreusicke flexilble inspection light with mirrors, magnets and lightguide tips for a mere TWO euros. Then the seller contacted me and said that he is unwilling to pay the Paypal fare (not Ebay). Given the low amount, I agreed to cover that and then he asked to just do a private payment. Now he is giving me bullshit like 'returned with wrong postage'.
Grrrrr..!

Unexpectedly, it came out well and I received the item yesterday. 
The Dreusicke inspection light is in the attached picture, but it doesn't work yet. It is rechargeable with a accumulator that can be plugged into a line receptacle. But those are not so rare as normal lights and maybe I'll open it up. Or I might adapt the parts to another light.

Unrelated, I found the fitting front cover for my Tek TDS5104 in the US at the (in)famous Sol***traders.
(I can't help but imagining them as two greasy and sleazy guys in mobster suits sitting in a shack with massive heaps of test equipment outside, all the time shouting at some dusty henchmen which scurry around under the sun of NM. Apologies for the stereotype, but the picture is coming back!) 
Although I had to blow up their picture tenfold to see the half scratched-off adhesive label with the correct Tek part number. That felt much better than going by size alone, especially as the measurement was not referenced.

[mnementh]

Problem is, it does not matter how much I ask... I am not the one developing the S/W so I have to make do with what's out there, like everyone else.
I am happy that you are happy... I am not and wil never be by the way IT is going. t me computers have long stopped being interesting and fun... now they are just a necessary evil to me, that I try to live with, spend as little time as possible messing with as it's not enjoyable, and spend as little money on them as possible. My PC is 15 years old and if I could I would keep it another 15 or 30 years. Sadly it's starting to look less and less feasible due to S/W bloat and this race for silly high picture and movie resolutions / bandwidth.  The race for clock speed stagnated, so now they have invented a new race, for pixels, to keep the industry going 

I think you're the customer flagellating themselves with the doomsaying sign to be fair. A huge amount of progress has been made. It's worth swimming a bit upstream and enjoying it.

As for pixels, I really have to disagree there. The biggest improvements for me recently have been displays. I have invested in the two best computer displays available at the moment. They are, without hyperbole or exaggeration, fairly life changing. Another hobby is photography you see...

The problem I have with the larger screens (TV or computer) is motion sickness, can't play modern games on this 24" monitor for very long at all, same with watching the large TV at my brothers place, the deliberate shaky camera shit in some films & TV programmes doesn't help. 

David

You can't play video games on the cheap office/fleet-duty monitors. If you're lucky they're good for 60hz. Even at that pitiful refresh rate, they tear and blur like crazy. You don't always get a good monitor by throwing money at the problem; but unless you win the closeout lottery, you don't get good without paying a fair bit for it.  Same is true of most TVs... they make horrible monitors in most cases, even for game consoles.

mnem
moo. or don't.

[GreyWoolfe]

Thankfully, I am not a gamer.  I use a 47" LG LED TV as my monitor on my main computer.  I am quite happy the display shows 1080P as the TV boots up.  yoobtoob videos play just fine and the firestick plays well also.  Good 'nuff for me.

[mnementh]

Problem is, it does not matter how much I ask... I am not the one developing the S/W so I have to make do with what's out there, like everyone else.
I am happy that you are happy... I am not and wil never be by the way IT is going. t me computers have long stopped being interesting and fun... now they are just a necessary evil to me, that I try to live with, spend as little time as possible messing with as it's not enjoyable, and spend as little money on them as possible. My PC is 15 years old and if I could I would keep it another 15 or 30 years. Sadly it's starting to look less and less feasible due to S/W bloat and this race for silly high picture and movie resolutions / bandwidth.  The race for clock speed stagnated, so now they have invented a new race, for pixels, to keep the industry going 

I think you're the customer flagellating themselves with the doomsaying sign to be fair. A huge amount of progress has been made. It's worth swimming a bit upstream and enjoying it.

As for pixels, I really have to disagree there. The biggest improvements for me recently have been displays. I have invested in the two best computer displays available at the moment. They are, without hyperbole or exaggeration, fairly life changing. Another hobby is photography you see...

Yes I like photography too. Problem is the averag ejoe confuses resolution/ pixel count, and "quality".

Every tells me " My camera makes super good quality pics,; it's XXXXX  Megapixel, yours is only X Megapixel LOL ".

I keep trying to explain them than a 12MP shitty picture is just 12M times more shit than a shitty 1MP picture, but they don't understand.

Well I will always prefer a good VGA pic to a 10MP shitty picture that's super grainy and blurry and not focused and crap lighting and horrible colours what have you, ie 95% of the pictures people take and post on forums.

I might go into the photography rabbit hole one day... but not very deep, because shallow pockets. A friend 15 years ago sent me pictures taken with a Leica camera and it looked super sharp and crisp, vivid.
Want that. Am tempted by a Sigma camera (if they are still in business) with their unique "Phoveon" sensor or whatever it's called not sure. Then a decent objective for super macro shots of electronic boards/components, and wood grain once I get to dabble with fine wood working. Then a wide angle objective so I can take/show interior pics of my house, because it's small. Then an objective for long distances, so I can zoom on the wild ducks and coypus from my kitchen window, when they show up at the back of my garden.

My dad has a large LCD screen on his computer and I can live with it. Give me eye strain. Eyes have too much to move/travel to go from one corner to the other, I don't find it comfortable.
Right now I am using a 22" LCD I was given recently, that I fixed, to replace my old 17" CRT that was dying. I would not want much bigger than this 22".... instead I add as many "virtual  desktops" as I need, to spread the programs across multiple "desktops". Makes it easy to organize stiff and reduce clutter on a given desktop. First desktop is for music playing, second is the main one with Firefox and it's 3 windows and 60 tabs open at all times. third and last is kept clear and I switch to it when I want a clean desktop for temporary stuff. Look at a file I just downloaded, whatever, without having to disturb/minimize all the windows that are opened in the second/main desktop.

My experience is that only folks who've only ever had the cheapest crap "fleet-use" monitors designed to be bought by the 100s for a lot price really have complaints about fuzzy monitors. Those of us who've been buying state-of-the-art monitors for either content creation or "PC Master Race" class gaming rigs know that monitors come as "Cheap/Good/Large: Pick any two."

Same, honestly, is true of digital cameras. However, there is about 100x as much marketeering BS withe cameras as there is with monitors... mostly because it's easy to see a shite monitor on the demo shelf; much harder to know if the shite pics from xyz camera are actually the camera (honestly, they usually are, no matter what the sales-weenie sez) or the operator... but at this late stage of the game, IMHO, any digital camera that doesn't have a "Point & Click" mode that USUALLY takes awesome pictures... no matter what the price point... needs to be stuffed up someone's arse.

There simply is no excuse for letting any such camera get to market; the technology is beyond mature at this point, and has been for almost 2 decades.

Vince, search locally for a Sony DSC-H2 or H5. You should be able to find a working one around $25-35; they are tougher than leather and they just work. They use AA batteries; run great on NiMHs. The only real weak point is they use Memory Stick Pro Duo media; micro-SD adapters which work awesome cost like $5.

Other than that... honestly, some of your comments make you sound like you're still stuck in the "Windows XP is still plenty!" mentality, and quite frankly... today's computers actually do so much more than that; even a confirmed "old is still okay" nerd like myself won't run it willingly, or any computer of similar capacity. The difference between those old boxes and even my old gaming rig on Win10... just light years ahead.

You need a certain minimum amount of machine nowadays if you're going to be on the intardNet at all. You need sufficient processor and at least 8GB RAM, preferably more, just to run Windows Firewall/Defender (it's still in there, and it's still pretty decent) and your browser (or the equivalent of those two in other OSes) so you are even marginally safe.

The fact you run *NIX tells me you can't possibly be that ignorant of modern OSes... there is so much wrench-twirling under the hood required to even get it running that you pretty much have to have some knowledge of what makes a modern OS tick, and what they can do if you feed them adequate computer power. So I really don't know what to make of those ignorant-sounding remarks. 

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

I like Windows 10*. There I said it! 

It's stable, fast, and the only bluesceens I've had are from faulty hardware or when I poked at something I shouldn't have. Stuff just works, printers just work, no messing around. Network printer, Wi-Fi, USB, whatever. I have yet to have a connection problem under Win10.
Same for setting network drives etc. In XP it was an ordeal. Win10 it's like 10 clicks of the mouse.

You think 10 clicks is good only because they had made it even more hellacious previously. In macOS it's one click followed by a double click.

[Neomys Sapiens]

My computers all work fine and do exactly what I want 

That's because you have sex with them on a regular basis; keep them content and well-fed. Most of us meatsacks haven't figured that one out yet... 

mnem
OMFG... I still have that XPS-M1330!!!

Not at all. I threaten them regularly. They are afraid. That’s how you treat computers. 

Edit: and there are printers. You need to make sure they are very afraid.

Indeed that can work out surprisingly well. Like showing them the UGLY tools and probes.

[mnementh]

Now you're swinging back around to the "have sex with them often; keep them content and well-fed" strategy... 

mnem
 

[med6753]

My experience is that only folks who've only ever had the cheapest crap "fleet-use" monitors designed to be bought by the 100s for a lot price really have complaints about fuzzy monitors. Those of us who've been buying state-of-the-art monitors for either content creation or "PC Master Race" class gaming rigs know that monitors come as "Cheap/Good/Large: Pick any two."

Same, honestly, is true of digital cameras. However, there is about 100x as much marketeering BS withe cameras as there is with monitors... mostly because it's easy to see a shite monitor on the demo shelf; much harder to know if the shite pics from xyz camera are actually the camera (honestly, they usually are, no matter what the sales-weenie sez) or the operator... but at this late stage of the game, IMHO, any digital camera that doesn't have a "Point & Click" mode that USUALLY takes awesome pictures... no matter what the price point... needs to be stuffed up someone's arse.

There simply is no excuse for letting any such camera get to market; the technology is beyond mature at this point, and has been for almost 2 decades.

Vince, search locally for a Sony DSC-H2 or H5. You should be able to find a working one around $25-35; they are tougher than leather and they just work. They use AA batteries; run great on NiMHs. The only real weak point is they use Memory Stick Pro Duo media; micro-SD adapters which work awesome cost like $5.

Other than that... honestly, some of your comments make you sound like you're still stuck in the "Windows XP is still plenty!" mentality, and quite frankly... today's computers actually do so much more than that; even a confirmed "old is still okay" nerd like myself won't run it willingly, or any computer of similar capacity. The difference between those old boxes and even my old gaming rig on Win10... just light years ahead.

You need a certain minimum amount of machine nowadays if you're going to be on the intardNet at all. You need sufficient processor and at least 8GB RAM, preferably more, just to run Windows Firewall/Defender (it's still in there, and it's still pretty decent) and your browser (or the equivalent of those two in other OSes) so you are even marginally safe.

The fact you run *NIX tells me you can't possibly be that ignorant of modern OSes... there is so much wrench-twirling under the hood required to even get it running that you pretty much have to have some knowledge of what makes a modern OS tick, and what they can do if you feed them adequate computer power. So I really don't know what to make of those ignorant-sounding remarks. 

mnem
 

Gee....could you make that response any more arrogant and condescending? Who died and left you the "expert"? I swear I think you like tweaking our resident Frenchman's nose and when he reacts negatively you tell him to chill. No, it's you that needs to chill and tone it down several octaves. You know as soon as Vince wakes up in the morning and sees your response the shit is gonna hit the fan. And I don't blame him. Talk to me in the tone of your response and I'll tell you to go fuck yourself. There's a right way and a wrong way to educate and spread knowledge. Your bully pulpit doesn't cut it.

Guess I'm gonna have to make more popcorn.         

[tautech]

Guess I'm gonna have to make more popcorn.       

you through that whoppa bag already ? 

Dawn duels will be next. 

[Vince]

Curiosity just dictated me to "look after" my two unidentifiable RCA TO3 trannystors. I decided to turn one of them into a convertible top to have a peek inside.

I thought hey wouldn't it be cool to have a microscope so I can look at the die in detail ... well I guess I don't need one for a big ass TO3 die... you can just look at it with naked eyes. Macro shot with the camera helps a bit too, but no need for a 'scope...

One of the two bonding points is broken, but maybe it was just the hacksaw blade hitting the pin, I don't know

That was my contribution for today 

That reminds me of an old mate of mine, years back.

Bob needed a Silicon phototransistor, & like many of us at work at the time, had a lot of "cleanskin" NPN & PNP transistors that a local shop was selling for a few cents each out of "lolly jars".
We would all go home with our little bags of what I called "BC10?" transistors.

Bob neatly sliced the top off one of these, glued in a clear plastic window, & had his phototransistor.
It worked well, too!

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, how could I.... yes I will play with that a little bit today, have to do it at least once in your EE nerd life I suppose !
I will add that to today's TODO list ! 

[Robert763]

Problem is, it does not matter how much I ask... I am not the one developing the S/W so I have to make do with what's out there, like everyone else.
I am happy that you are happy... I am not and wil never be by the way IT is going. t me computers have long stopped being interesting and fun... now they are just a necessary evil to me, that I try to live with, spend as little time as possible messing with as it's not enjoyable, and spend as little money on them as possible. My PC is 15 years old and if I could I would keep it another 15 or 30 years. Sadly it's starting to look less and less feasible due to S/W bloat and this race for silly high picture and movie resolutions / bandwidth.  The race for clock speed stagnated, so now they have invented a new race, for pixels, to keep the industry going 

I think you're the customer flagellating themselves with the doomsaying sign to be fair. A huge amount of progress has been made. It's worth swimming a bit upstream and enjoying it.

As for pixels, I really have to disagree there. The biggest improvements for me recently have been displays. I have invested in the two best computer displays available at the moment. They are, without hyperbole or exaggeration, fairly life changing. Another hobby is photography you see...

Yes I like photography too. Problem is the averag ejoe confuses resolution/ pixel count, and "quality".

Every tells me " My camera makes super good quality pics,; it's XXXXX  Megapixel, yours is only X Megapixel LOL ".

I keep trying to explain them than a 12MP shitty picture is just 12M times more shit than a shitty 1MP picture, but they don't understand.

Well I will always prefer a good VGA pic to a 10MP shitty picture that's super grainy and blurry and not focused and crap lighting and horrible colours what have you, ie 95% of the pictures people take and post on forums.

I might go into the photography rabbit hole one day... but not very deep, because shallow pockets. A friend 15 years ago sent me pictures taken with a Leica camera and it looked super sharp and crisp, vivid.
Want that. Am tempted by a Sigma camera (if they are still in business) with their unique "Phoveon" sensor or whatever it's called not sure. Then a decent objective for super macro shots of electronic boards/components, and wood grain once I get to dabble with fine wood working. Then a wide angle objective so I can take/show interior pics of my house, because it's small. Then an objective for long distances, so I can zoom on the wild ducks and coypus from my kitchen window, when they show up at the back of my garden.

My dad has a large LCD screen on his computer and I can live with it. Give me eye strain. Eyes have too much to move/travel to go from one corner to the other, I don't find it comfortable.
Right now I am using a 22" LCD I was given recently, that I fixed, to replace my old 17" CRT that was dying. I would not want much bigger than this 22".... instead I add as many "virtual  desktops" as I need, to spread the programs across multiple "desktops". Makes it easy to organize stiff and reduce clutter on a given desktop. First desktop is for music playing, second is the main one with Firefox and it's 3 windows and 60 tabs open at all times. third and last is kept clear and I switch to it when I want a clean desktop for temporary stuff. Look at a file I just downloaded, whatever, without having to disturb/minimize all the windows that are opened in the second/main desktop.

Yes pixel count is nothing to do with quality. At best it allows you to crop out any stupid mistakes you make. But it does help when it comes to actually editing and enjoying the photos you took. It's very difficult to tell how sharp something is with a low pixel density. I can print very large photos off my phone which is a 12MP camera, although that oversharpens things slightly resulting in me getting annoyed.

I found that the size isn't related to eyestrain even though it feels like it. There are some really large panels that don't cock up your eyes and some that do. Eventually I worked out this was down to contrast ratio, pixel density and how far you are away from the screen. Invest in the first two and move back from a larger screen helps massively and improves the whole visual acuity thing. I do use virtual desktops as well, usually having a utility desktop (todos/notes), a browser desktop and a lightroom desktop.

On that, a friend of mine just got a couple of decent 27" Dell Ultrasharp 4k IPS panels out of a skip the other day. They were chucked out because they were VESA mount and no one wants monitors without stands and the office they were in was closing down and no one is buying desktop stuff at the moment. There's a lot of free stuff out there which is top notch.

There are issues with more active pixels on the same size sensor. One that a lot of people miss is dynamic range. A small active area (pixel) is both less sensitive and saturates at a lower level. The ratio of active area to dead space (interconnects readout circuitry etc) goes down too. These can be fudged with processing but the raw data is still poorer. You really notive these effects when using imaging sensors for measurement purposes.
More is not automatically better

[Vince]

My experience is that only folks who've only ever had the cheapest crap "fleet-use" monitors designed to be bought by the 100s for a lot price really have complaints about fuzzy monitors. Those of us who've been buying state-of-the-art monitors for either content creation or "PC Master Race" class gaming rigs know that monitors come as "Cheap/Good/Large: Pick any two."

Same, honestly, is true of digital cameras. However, there is about 100x as much marketeering BS withe cameras as there is with monitors... mostly because it's easy to see a shite monitor on the demo shelf; much harder to know if the shite pics from xyz camera are actually the camera (honestly, they usually are, no matter what the sales-weenie sez) or the operator... but at this late stage of the game, IMHO, any digital camera that doesn't have a "Point & Click" mode that USUALLY takes awesome pictures... no matter what the price point... needs to be stuffed up someone's arse.

There simply is no excuse for letting any such camera get to market; the technology is beyond mature at this point, and has been for almost 2 decades.

Vince, search locally for a Sony DSC-H2 or H5. You should be able to find a working one around $25-35; they are tougher than leather and they just work. They use AA batteries; run great on NiMHs. The only real weak point is they use Memory Stick Pro Duo media; micro-SD adapters which work awesome cost like $5.

Other than that... honestly, some of your comments make you sound like you're still stuck in the "Windows XP is still plenty!" mentality, and quite frankly... today's computers actually do so much more than that; even a confirmed "old is still okay" nerd like myself won't run it willingly, or any computer of similar capacity. The difference between those old boxes and even my old gaming rig on Win10... just light years ahead.

You need a certain minimum amount of machine nowadays if you're going to be on the intardNet at all. You need sufficient processor and at least 8GB RAM, preferably more, just to run Windows Firewall/Defender (it's still in there, and it's still pretty decent) and your browser (or the equivalent of those two in other OSes) so you are even marginally safe.

The fact you run *NIX tells me you can't possibly be that ignorant of modern OSes... there is so much wrench-twirling under the hood required to even get it running that you pretty much have to have some knowledge of what makes a modern OS tick, and what they can do if you feed them adequate computer power. So I really don't know what to make of those ignorant-sounding remarks. 

mnem
 

Gee....could you make that response any more arrogant and condescending? Who died and left you the "expert"? I swear I think you like tweaking our resident Frenchman's nose and when he reacts negatively you tell him to chill. No, it's you that needs to chill and tone it down several octaves. You know as soon as Vince wakes up in the morning and sees your response the shit is gonna hit the fan. And I don't blame him. Talk to me in the tone of your response and I'll tell you to go fuck yourself. There's a right way and a wrong way to educate and spread knowledge. Your bully pulpit doesn't cut it.

Guess I'm gonna have to make more popcorn.       

Papa Smurf, you have already had too much pop-corn, that's not good for you health... too much of anything is not good for health in general so... no, I won't even reply to him, it's not worth it.
Just about everything he said is non sense, stuff I never said, nor even meant in the slightest. Doing so is his usual tactic to force me to correct him so I get into the fight he wants, needs, lives for. He is not a dragon for nothing. He did choose his avatar appropriately, I will give him that.  This is 5 year old level social media BS and I run away from that. He can have it with someone else. I am done with him. 12+ months of that shit, I am just bored with it.

I shall now ignore his posts and provocations advitam eternam. I like TEA and want to stay here, it's my ray of sunshine and I got to like it over the months, I must admit. But this dragon shit is killing me. I didn't come here for that shit. It does not add to the TEA experience, it just puts me off of it rather. It's truly toxic, on a psychological level. I don't need my mind to be messed up more than it already is ! 
Some might find it fun and like it, good on them. To each their own.
I shall ignore all of his posts from now on and certainly never ever reply to any of them. It's just asking for trouble and I can do without it.
I will investigate the technical possibility of filtering his posts automatically, so that they don't even appear on my screen. Maybe there is some Firefox plug-in that can do that, I don't know. I will have a look for that at the very least.

Then he will say I am a drama queen I am suuuure... he is the one causing the drama, not me. I am only reacting to it to preserve my mental health. He can go fuck someone else's mind now, won't be me any more. I would love to tell him to fuck off but I just can't resort to insults.

Whatever he replies if anything, I won't even know about it, won't read it.

All I care for today is how to organize all the parts I have sorted the past few days. I still can't decide on the best way to organize them in my drawer cabinet and/or small plastic bags  and/or plastic bins in a large drawer. That, I care about 
Oh, and also plant the baby strawberries, raspberrries and tomatoes in my garden, that I bought yesterday. At the super market these are horribly expensive yet taste like shit.. but growing your own is easy, costs bugger all, and they taste orders of magnitude better, and you are sure they aren't soaked in a million different chemical products. It's a no brainer.

So I will do that today. That's all I REALLY care about ! 

I hope you have not yet eaten the entirety of the pop-corn bag, it was way too much for a Smurf or even a human being ! 

[Vince]

There are issues with more active pixels on the same size sensor. One that a lot of people miss is dynamic range. A small active area (pixel) is both less sensitive and saturates at a lower level. The ratio of active area to dead space (interconnects readout circuitry etc) goes down too. These can be fudged with processing but the raw data is still poorer. You really notive these effects when using imaging sensors for measurement purposes.
More is not automatically better

Indeed ! That's why I always understood that large sensors were better, more light hitting them, less noise, better sensitivity, and cost a fortune, and were used in professional cameras.

Just like the saying goes for car engines " There is no replacement for displacement "... same goes for cameras I guess : " there is no replacement for sensor area ". That doesn't rhyme though.... need to word it better than that...